The Birkie Fever

Well, survived another Birkie yesterday - always an adventure. A 51 km pilgrimage through the Chequamegon national forest in Northern Wisconsin. It was a huge race this year, over 10,000 racers for the events i heard. It was shaping up to be a fast "gliding" race, perfect for me since i have tons of leg strength now with all my huge rides in recent weeks...but i was foiled. A fresh inch of snow and a bit cooler temps turned the snow into sandpaper - it was work. It really turned into a race of high-end threshold ski fitness, not really my forte at this point in my RAAM training.

The gun went off and it quick became evident it was going to be a tough day. I was struggeling to stay with the front group and we hit the early climbs and belw up - i was quickly in like 75th place. i composed myslef, setteled into a compfy pace and continued on the trek. I was moving up and at about 15km, caught up to my buddie and new daddie Chad Giese. We continued to collect folks and by aobut "OO" it was evident there was no "getting away" from the huge group that had formed behind so i settled in for a little train ride to Hayward. It seemed to be a bit of an inexperienced group as we were like and accordian and the hills were really tough as the pace was always changing....a bike racing 101 class would have helped out a bunch of them and made our race much smoother.

We got to Hayward and believe it or not, i was starting to feel better. We were finally starting to chatch more folks in front of us...and if it were another 10km, all up hill, i'd have been set!! No upper end, but plenty of base cruising speed to keep ball rolling for some time it seemed.

A fun event, a good hard workout, but now it is time to hit the bike full time. The skiing has really helped my core and general strength, but now it is saddle time. In less than a month, i'll be back in Cali for my last training trip and plan to ride 36 hrs straight from San Diego, then a short rest and contine on the rest of the first 800 miles of the race to Durango. I'm hoping to try out a few race support pieces and gear choices (no chamois shorts??). Inside 4 months now...wow!

Photos from www.skinnyski.com